I think that Ristolainen’s term alone would cause the Preds to decline.

I think I would rather keep Evans, not a bad offer by any means but Evans is very underrated, he's a great defensive center and he's great on the PK

He is younger and less cap than McDonagh and only 1 more year under contract. Idk. Depends on the underlying metrics tbh. McDonagh has looked good this year but our rhd is very underwhelming and this would make room for stastney to move up from the ahl and allow for us to move on from some of carrier/barrie/fabbro. Something to consider atleast

Stadtney is a LD, but I get what you’re saying (replace him with Jake Livingstone for a NHL-level RD). The problem, in my mind, is that both Stastney and Livingstone (maybe even del Gaizo) deserve NHL ice time. That means 2-3 defensemen would need to move. Right now, that’s looking like Barrie, Fabbro/Carrier, and McDonagh at the end of his deal (though I’d very much like to move on from Schenn). That extra year could force us to put one of those 3 on waivers.